Cunningham v. Sommerville

182 W. Va. 427 (1989)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P seeks a writ of prohibition against Ds, the two judges of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit to preclude them from appointing P to represent indigent criminal defendants until such time, if ever, that the petitioner engages in the practice of law separate from her employment full-time as house counsel for a business corporation. P is employed by Go-Mart, Inc. as its general counsel. She has held that position since August 1, 1987. P has no separate private law practice. As a condition of P's employment by Go-Mart, P is prohibited from having outside employment commitments. P is required to work a minimum of thirty-nine hours per week in order to maintain her medical and life insurance coverage. P normally averages fifty hours per week of work and sometimes works as many as seventy-five hours per week. All of P's office space, equipment, and supplies are furnished by Go-Mart. P possesses no criminal reference books, state or regional reporters, or other research materials relating to criminal law. Her files and computer data bank are the property of Go-Mart and can be accessed by other Go-Mart employees. P has no facilities whereby she could ensure client confidentiality for any client other than Go-Mart or its related corporations. P is a former assistant prosecuting attorney. The Circuit Court has appointed P to represent forty-three indigent criminal defendants charged with seventy-five crimes. Most of the crimes are misdemeanors, but some are felonies, and there is one juvenile proceeding. At a subsequent hearing, the trial court denied P's motion to be relieved as counsel. P brought this prohibition proceeding to bar enforcement of the trial court's ruling.